John Kerry insists the number of countries supporting military action in Syria is now in 'double digits'... but he won't say who they are

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Arab leaders in Paris on Sunday, the day after he spoke of growing international support for military action in Syria.

Kerry met Egypt's foreign minister Nabil Fahmy then headed to talk to Prince Saud al Faisal, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, and other Middle Eastern leaders at the U.S. Ambassador's residence in the French capital.

On Saturday the Secretary of State said the number of countries who were prepared to take military action in Syria was now 'in the double digits', but he didn't name them publicly.

Support: US Secretary of State John Kerry (right) talks with journalists at the United States Embassy in Paris, before his meeting with Arab League representatives on Sunday

Desperation: Syrian refugees arrive at the Turkish Cilvegozu gate border, on Saturday, fleeing the violence in their own country

At a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Kerry said: 'There are a number of countries in the double digits, who are prepared to take military action.

'The overwhelming support is moving in the direction of holding the Assad regime to account,' he continued, as both men attempted to encourage support for action in both France and the U.S.

Kerry added that: 'We have more countries prepared to take military action than we actually could use in the kind of military action being contemplated.'

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

'We in the United States know, and our French partners know, that this is not the time to be silent spectators to slaughter,' the Secretary of State said.

Speaking in Paris after meeting with Arab League nations, Mr Kerry said 'a number' of them had backed the call by a number of G20 countries for a 'strong international response'.

The UK was one of 11 of the world's biggest economies which released a joint statement blaming the Assad regime for the chemical attack after last week's summit in St Petersburg. It has subsequently been endorsed by Germany.

Diplomacy: Secretary of State Kerry (right) talks with Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby (left). Kerry has said that the countries who support military action in Syria is now in 'double digits'

But host Russia - one of Assad's staunchest allies - insists the attack was carried out by opposition forces and was among countries that did not sign up as the gathering highlighted stark divisions.

Mr Kerry said: 'We discussed the possible and necessary measures that the international community can take to deter Assad from ever crossing that line again.

'A number of countries immediately signed on to the G20 agreement that was reached by now 12 countries and they will make their own announcements in the next 24 hours about that.'

He said: 'What the United States is seeking - not alone but with others, an increasing number - is to enforce the standard with respect to the use of chemical weapons.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry answers a question during a news conference with Qatar Foreign Minister Khalid Al Attiya (R) at the United States Embassy in Paris, September 8, 2013

US Secretary of State John Kerry walks past a cafe as he heads to a pastry shop in Paris, on September 8, 2013. Kerry continues a diplomatic offensive in Europe on September 8 to win backing for military strikes in Syria

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks September 9, 2013 in London, England

US Secretary of State John Kerry answers a question during a news conference at the US Embassy in Paris on September 8, 2013

'We are not seeking to become engaged in or party to or take over Syria's civil war.

'All of us agreed, with not one dissenter, that Assad's deplorable use of chemical weapons, which we know killed hundreds of innocent people, including at least 426 children, on this occasion, this one occasion, crosses an international, a global red line.'

Kerry also invoked the 1938 Munich Agreement which appeased Hitler and gave a section of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany.

'This is our Munich moment, this is our chance to join together and pursue accountability over appeasement,' Kerry said.

Civil war: Issa, 10 years old, assembles a locally handmade mortar shell in a weapons factory of the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo, on Saturday. Issa works with his father in the factory for ten hours every day except on Fridays

French, it is said, is the language of love, and Kerry flaunted his fluency in the language on Saturday to deliver something of a love letter to France, one of the few world powers that seems likely to join the United States in any military action against Syria.

Following the British parliament's August 29 vote to reject any British use of force against Syria, which the United States accuses of gassing its own people with sarin, France has made no secret of its desire to play Washington's supporting partner.

Speaking in French for eight minutes beneath the gold-painted cherubs of one of the Quai d'Orsay's elegant salons, Kerry traced the history of U.S.-French relations beginning from the American Revolution, while glossing over their many tiffs.

'When he visited General de Gaulle in
Paris more than 50 years ago, President Kennedy said, and I quote, 'The
relationship between France and the United States is crucially
important for the preservation of liberty in the whole world,' Kerry
said.

'Today, faced
with the brutal chemical weapons attacks in Syria, that relationship
evoked by President Kennedy is more crucial than ever,' he added.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) talks with French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris on Saturday

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius walk in the garden of the Quai d'Orsay, in Paris

Not to be outdone, Fabius broke a taboo by speaking in English at a news conference in the Foreign Ministry's elegant building on the banks of the Seine, where he once chided a reporter, 'Here, sir, we speak French.'

While Kerry's performance might be seen as flattering a French government that is one of the few to back U.S. President Barack Obama's call for air strikes to deter Syria from using chemical arms, it may help convince a skeptical French public.

An IFOP poll published on Saturday showed 68 percent of French were against an intervention in Syria.

France took no part in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which it strongly opposed, but joined the United States, Britain and others in a military intervention that helped oust Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Kerry, who learned French as a boy, found his fluency a liability during his 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, feeding an image of the Democrat as a wealthy elitist that his Republican opponent, then-President George W. Bush, exploited.

Chaos: Smugglers break through the fence border as they enter Syrian territory near Cilvegozu, Turkey, on Saturday

As a diplomat, however, it is an asset, allowing him to speak directly to the French about their unhappy history with chemical warfare during World War One as one reason why the French government is sensitive to its alleged use in Syria.

'Some of the very first lethal chemical weapons attacks happened here, on French soil, during the First World War and a large number of these victims of these deadly, indiscriminate weapons were young French soldiers, just 19 or 20 years old,' he said.

Fabius, an experienced politician best known for having been France's youngest prime minister, showed a rare moment of intensity and outrage about an August 21 attack in Syria in which the Syrian government is accused of using sarin gas.

Syria, embroiled in a 2-1/2-year-old civil war in which more than 100,000 are believed to have died, denies that.

'You have to look at the images of these children in rows with the shrouds over them, not an injury, not a drop of blood? And they are there and they are sleeping forever,' Fabius said, visibly shaken.

'There's a dictator who did it and is ready to start again,' he said gesticulating with his fists.

As if to underscore their countries' ties, Kerry and Fabius went for a walk outside the Foreign Ministry on a pleasant Paris evening, where, later, the sky to the west was lit with gold and to the east by a rainbow.

'France and the United States stand shoulder to shoulder. Some ask why? Just look at history. Each time that the cause is just, France and the United States stand together,' Fabius said.